About the Blog

This blog focuses on the topic of bilingualism. We invite discussions on all things bilingual: research in bilingual children or adults, learning two languages, language impairment in bilingual populations, funny stuff (cartoons, jokes and so on), and bilingualism in the news are some examples. If you’re interested in becoming a contributor to the blog (with your own posts) send Liz an e-mail: edpena@uci.edu.

Please feel free to comment on any of the posts. At this point we have no rules or guidelines about comments, but we’ll come up with some as the need arises.

Do you have questions? Comments? Suggestions for topics? Add your comment below.

Like this:

Hi Elizabeth and Brian,
I work in NYC for a company that trains corporate professionals in communication skills and language. We also provide translation services. My academic background is in Linguistics and I myself grew up bilingual (Spanish/English). I am enjoying your blog and I look forward to future posts. Last year, besides working for Lanartco, I also taught as a bilingual/special education teacher in the NYC public school system. My biggest challange was assessing/determining special education services for my students; whether they truely were in need of them or they were just delayed due to their language behaviors.
Trying to convince the administration and some parents of the latter was very difficult.
Thanks for posting and I hope you continue to grace us with your wisdom on the subject of bilingualism.
Malena

I’m writing just to introduce myself and will run to discover your blog, which looks so interesting to me already! I’m living in Rome with my Italian husband and our 1/2 Russian-1/2Italian little boy, who is growing up as a bilingual one. Recently I started to write a blog about bilingualism. It could be really nice to collaborate, at least I’m going to follow you!
Good luck, Sofiahttp://www.designdelbilinguismo.wordpress.com

I really enjoy reading this blog. I am a student at SFSU, so I take this blog as an important tool to increase my knowledge in bilingualism!
I have learned so much stuff just by reading the great articles.
Thanks so much and many students from SFSU thank you deeply for this amazing site!
Thanks again!!

Hi. I’m Ramón Talavera. I’m Mexican and I work at UT (www.utk16.org/lucha)
I teach Spanish as a foreign language through Hispanic literature at the the Faulk Central Library in Austin and through a blog.
I thought you might be interested in checking my blog: http://yquemecuentas.blogspot.com
One of the most interesting sections of the blog is “Ejercicios del curso por autor” . You can find it in the right hand side of the blog. You can see how students create their own stories using eight new words every class. It is really interesting what they have been able to create.
Kind regards,

This blog is a great resource for SLPs and other professionals working with bilingual individuals. I look forward to continue reading new research and studies being done with bilingual individuals as it’s an area of great interest to me. During my Master’s program in SLP, we focused heavily on appropriate assessment of culturally and linguistically diverse children. I’m wondering what research there is regarding appropriate assessment of CLD adults, particularly adults with aphasia. I work at an aphasia center and evaluate new/continuing members, as well as those interested in receiving individual therapy. We have a pre-set list of assessments that we use for the evaluations (e.g., WAB, CADL, ALA), but thus far have only been evaluating monolingual, English-speakers. I am wondering what the appropriate assessment materials would be for individuals who are bilingual or speak Spanish. I am aware of the Spanish translation of the WAB, as well as the Bilingual Aphasia Test, but am not sure if there is research that shows the flaws or benefits of either of these (and other) tests.

I just wanted to thank you for creating such a valuable resource for speech language pathologists who are interested in serving and knowing more about bilinguals. Also a special cheer because I feel it is a great resource for professors to point out to their students……it is not everyday that there are blogs written by the people who actually put out the research – what a great way to narrow the research-clinic divide! Thank you really:)

Hi Everyone,
I am a native Spanish speaker and have thought the language to both of my children. They communicate with me in Spanish only and English with the rest of the world. My son is now 9 years old and going into 4th grade. They will start teaching Spanish this year but the lesson is super simple for him in fact I saw the 6th grade curriculum and he can probably do it. However, the school is not going to support me with placing him in advance classes. So, I have to come up with a plan for him to spend 45 minutes of his time once a week doing something more productive than learning the colors and number in Spanish.

I need help!!! i would like for him to take an assessment so that I can have an idea of where is at. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.